Linked Data: Perspectives for IT Professionals

The Semantic Web provides a common framework that allows data to be shared and reused across application, enterprise, and community boundaries. To make the Semantic Web or Web of Data a reality, it is necessary to have a large volume of data available in a standard, reachable, and manageable format. This collection of interrelated data on the Web can also be referred to as Linked Data. Linked Data is the large scale integration of, and reasoning on, data on the Web. Supporting the adoption of semantic Web technologies, there exist tools oriented to creation, publication, and management of data, and a big subset for Linked Data. However, an important weakness in this area is that it has not completely established a formal reference that integrates the necessary infrastructure in terms of components. This lack implies a slower technological adoption, covering both the public and private sectors. This paper explores the emergence of the Semantic Web and Linked Data, and their potential impact on IT industry. The main advantages of using Linked Data are discussed from an IT professional perspective where the capability of having standard technologies and techniques to access and manipulate the information is an important achievement in the application of Linked Data.